murder, extermination, enslavement, starvation
or deportation and other inhumane acts committed against any civilian
population, and persecution on national, racial, religious or
political grounds;

"war crime" means any of the following acts:

murder, ill-treatment or deportation to forced
labour or for any other purpose, of civilian population of or
in occupied territory; murder Or ill-treatment of prisoners of
war or persons on the seas; killing of hostages; plunder of public
or private property; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages;
and devastation not justified by military necessity.

Crimes against
persecuted
persons.

2. If a person, during the period of the
Nazi regime, committed in an enemy country an act by which, had
he committed it in Israel territory, he would have become guilty
of an offence under one of the following sections of the Criminal
Code, and he committed the act against a persecuted person as
a persecuted person he shall be guilty of an offence under this
Law and be liable to the same punishment to which he would have
been liable had he committed the act in Israel territory:

3. (a) A person who, during the period of
the Nazi regime, in an enemy country, was a member of, or held
any post or exercised any function in, an enemy organisation is
liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years.

(b) In this section, "enemy organisation" means
-

(1) a body of persons which, under article 9
of the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, annexed
to the Four-Power Agreement of the 8th August, 1945, on the trial
of the major war criminals, has been declared, by a judgment of
that Tribunal, to be a criminal organisation;

(2) any other body of persons which existed
in an enemy country and the object or one of the objects of which
was to carry out or assist in carrying out actions of an enemy
administration directed against persecuted persons.

Offences in
places of
confinement.

4. (a) A person who, during the period of
the Nazi regime, in an enemy country and while exercising some
function in a place of confinement on behalf of an enemy administration
or of the person in charge of that place of confinement, committed
in that place of confinement an act against a persecuted person
by which, had he committed it in Israel territory, he would have
become guilty of an offence under one of the following sections
of the Criminal Code, shall be guilty of an offence under this
Law and be liable to the same punishment to which he would have
been liable had he committed the act in Israel territory:

(b) "Place of confinement", in this section,
means any place in an enemy country which, by order of an enemy
administration, was assigned to persecuted persons, and includes
any part of such a place.

Delivering up
persecuted
person to enemy
administration.

5. A person who, during the period of the
Nazi regime, in an enemy country, was instrumental in delivering
up a persecuted person to an enemy administration, is liable to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years.

Black-mailing
persecuted
persons.

6. A person who, during the period of the
Nazi regime, in an enemy country, received or demanded a benefit
-

(a) from a persecuted person under threat of
delivering up him or another persecuted person to an enemy administration;
or

(b) from a person who had given shelter to a
persecuted person, under threat of delivering up him or the persecuted
person sheltered by him to an enemy administration, is liable
to imprisonment for a period not exceeding seven years.

Application of
General Criminal
Code.

7. The provisions of the First Part of the
Criminal Code shall, save as this Law otherwise provides, apply
to offences under this Law.

Certain sections
not to apply.

8. Sections 16, 17, 18 and 19 of the Criminal
Code shall not apply to offences under this Law.

Res judicata.

9. (a) A person who has committed an offence
under this Law may be tried in Israel even if he has already been
tried abroad, whether before an international tribunal or a tribunal
of a foreign state, for the same offence.

(b) If a person is convicted in Israel of an
offence under this Law after being convicted of the same act abroad,
the Israel court shall, in determining the punishment, take into
consideration the sentence which he has served abroad.

Release from
criminal
responsibility.

10. If a persecuted person has done or omitted
to do any act, such act or omission constituting an offence under
this Law, the Court shall release him from criminal responsibility
-

(a) if he did or omitted to do the act in order

to save himself from the danger of immediate
death threatening him and the court is satisfied that he did his
best to avert the consequences of the act or omission; or

(b) if he did or omitted to do the act with
intent to avert consequences more serious than those which resulted
from the act or omission, and actually averted them; however,
these provisions shall not apply to an act or omission constituting
an offence under section 1 or 2(f).

Extenuating
circumstances.

11. In determining the punishment of a person
circumstances. convicted of an offence under this Law, the court
may take into account, as grounds for mitigating the punishment,
the following circumstances:

(a) that the person committed the offence under
conditions which, but for section 8, would have exempted him from
criminal responsibility or constituted a reason for pardoning
the offence, and that he did his best to reduce the gravity of
the consequences of the offence;

(b) that the offence was committed with intent
to avert, and was indeed calculated to avert, consequences more
serious than those which resulted from the offence; however, in
the case of an offence under section 1, the court shall Dot impose
on the offender a lighter punishment than imprisonment for a term
of ten years.

Prescription.

12. (a) The rules of prescription laid down
in the Fifth Chapter of the Ottoman Code of Criminal Procedure
shall not apply to offences under this Law.

(b) No person shall be prosecuted for an offence
under this Law, except offence under section 1 or 2(f), if twenty
years have passed since the time of the offence.

General amnesty
not to apply.

13. The provisions of the General Amnesty
Ordinance, 5709-1949), shall not apply to offences under this
Law.

Institution of
prosecution.

14. A prosecution for an offence under this
Law may only be instituted by the Attorney General or his representative.

Evidence.

15. (a) In an action for an offence under
this Law, the court may deviate from the rules of evidence if
it is satisfied that this will promote the ascertainment of the
truth and the just handling of the case.

(b) Whenever the court decides to deviate, under
subsection (a), from the rules of evidence, it shall place on
record the reasons which prompted its decision.

Interpretation.

16. In this Law -

"the period of the Nazi regime" means the period
which began on the 3rd Shevat, 5693 (30th January, 1933) and ended
on the 25th Iyar, 5705 (8th May, 1945);

"the period of the Second World War" means the
period which began on the 17th Elul, 5699 (1st September, l939)
and ended on the 5th Elul, 5705 (14th August, 1945);

"the Allied Powers" means the states which signed
the Declaration of the United Nations of the 1st January, 1942,
or acceded to it during the period of the Second World War;

"Axis state" means a state which during the
whole or part of the period of the Second World War was at war
with the Allied Powers; the period which began on the day of the
beginning of the state of war between a particular Axis state
and the first, in time, of the Allied Powers and ended on the
day of the cessation of hostilities between that state and the
last, in time, of the Allied Powers, shall be considered as the
period of the war between that state and the Allied Powers;

"enemy country" means

(a) Germany during the period of the Nazi regime;

(b) any other Axis state during the period of
the war between it and the Allied Powers;

(c) any territory which, during the whole or
part of the period of the Nazi regime, was de facto under German
rule, for the time during which it was de facto under German rule
as aforesaid;

(d) any territory which was de facto under the
rule of any other Axis state during the whole or part of the period
of the war between it and the Allied Powers, for the time during
which that territory was de facto under the rule of that Axis
state as aforesaid;

"enemy administration" means the administration
which existed in an enemy country;

"persecuted person" means a person belonging
to a national, racial, religious or political group which was
persecuted by an enemy administration;

"the Criminal Code" means the Criminal Code
Ordinance, 1936).

Implementation.

17. The Minister of Justice is charged with
the implementation of this Law.

DAVID BEN-GURION
Prime Minister

PINCHAS ROSEN
Minister of Justice

YOSEF SPRINZAK
Chairman of the Knesset
Acting President of the State

*Passed by the Knesset on the 18th Av, 5710 (1st
August, 1950) and Published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 57 of the 26th Av,
5711 (9th August, 1950). p. 281; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were
published in Hatza'ot Chok No. 36 of the 11th Adar, 5710 (28th February,
1950), P. 119.

Nazis and Nazi Collaborators
(Punishment) Law (Amendment) 5723-1963*

1. Section 12(b) of the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators
(Punishment) Law, 5710-1950) is hereby repealed retroactively as
from the day of its enactment.

LEVI ESHKOL
Prime Minister

DOV JOSEPH
Minister of Justice

SHNEUR ZALMAN SHAZAR
President of the State

*Passed by the Knesset on the 16th Av, 5723 (6th August, 1963) and
published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 404 of the 26th Av, 5723(16th August,
1963), p. 140; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza'ot
Chok No. 576 of 5723, p. 350.